A week in review. Most of the mining work I did was for a project that I dare not write about. I read hundreds of documents about a project that failed. And I tried to formulate the reasons why it failed. But, as I said, I dare not write about it. (more…)

Today the papers for the upcoming conference Tailings and Mine Waste 2011 went to the printer. The conference is in Vancouver November 6th and following. There are still about 40 places left to take full attendance to the limit of rooms size of 300. (more…)

The mine closure conference is underway in one of those tourist towns in the Rockies of Alberta. I am not there; somehow the event snuck up on me and I just could not bring myself to go to another conference where I would snooze unceasingly through dull talks in hushed and dark rooms. It is a liberating feeling to know that you have absolutely no desire to go to yet another conference. (more…)

A major report by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce is entitled What’s It Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors. The report is long, over 180 pages and covers degrees ranging from Agriculture to Social Sciences. Engineering is dealt with from page 110 to page 123. (more…)

On the plane from Seattle to Vancouver: she sat next to me; she was tall, and ginger, with the white skin and freckles of the perfect. She told me she is a geologist en route to a weekend with her boyfriend, also a geologist doing a masters at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in exploration geology on a scholarship from Hunter Dickinson. (more…)

No blog postings these past two weeks. I have been doing what miners do: working on mines. I have been doing what geotechnical engineers do: travelling to sites to see the soils & rocks. I have been doing what consultants do: going to far-away places to see, think, and advise. (more…)